LSI Corporation today announced it is sampling the industry's first 28 nm system-on-a-chip (SoC) for the desktop and mobile HDD market segments. The transition to 28 nm SoC technology provides a cost-effective way to increase the amount of data that can be stored on a hard drive by enabling higher areal density and yield through superior signal-to-noise ratio performance.

"The explosion of digital content driven by rich media such as high-definition video and photography is challenging HDD manufacturers to deliver higher-capacity, more energy-efficient drives," said Phil Brace, senior vice president and general manager, Storage Peripherals Division, LSI. "By being first to sample 28 nm SoC technology, we're offering HDD manufacturers a low-risk, time-to-market advantage in meeting next-generation HDD capacity points while staying within the power envelope."

An SoC is an integrated circuit that incorporates core components of an HDD electronic system into a single chip. LSI TrueStore SoCs are designed to simplify disk drive development, improve reliability and reduce power consumption while lowering drive costs for HDD manufacturers.

A critical piece of intelligence integrated into the new 28 nm SoC is the LSI TrueStore RC5100, a 28 nm read channel featuring third-generation LSI low-density parity check (LDPC) iterative decoding architecture. The RC5100 builds upon the success of the LDPC architecture of its 40 nm predecessor to create a seamless roadmap of significant areal density increases for HDD OEMs.

The LSI TrueStore family of hard disk, solid-state disk and tape devices includes highly integrated SoCs, read channels, preamplifiers, serial PHYs and hard disk drive controller IP. By offering a broad portfolio of integrated SoC solutions, LSI enables its customers to address all segments of the storage market, from mission-critical enterprise applications and high-capacity desktop PCs to low-power laptops and tape archive solutions.